Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Archibald McLin was born in Brooksville, Florida on June 26, 1908. He started on piano before picking up the banjo, then later the guitar. He played locally in Florida before relocating to New York City in 1928. He played both guitar and banjo in the early 1930s for James P. Johnson, Ward Pinkett, and Roy Eldridge.
Later in the decade he recorded with Willie “The Lion” Smith, Buster Bailey, Midge Williams, and Billie Holiday. In the early 1940s he worked with Sidney Bechet, Dave Nelson, and Claude Hopkins, then played trombone and mellophone in a military band while serving in the United States Navy during World War II. After his discharge he worked again with Hopkins and played guitar for The Ink Spots.
Banjoist and guitarist Jimmy McLin transitioned on December 15, 1983 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Daily Dose of Jazz…
Nappy Lamare was born Joseph Hilton Lamare on June 14, 1905 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He got his nickname from his friend, Eddie Miller, because he had curly hair. He started playing trumpet but picked up the banjo when he was thirteen and weeks later he was a member of the Midnight Serenaders. During his teen years he worked with Sharkey Bonano, Monk Hazel, and Johnny Wiggs. In 1925 he toured in California with Johnny Bayersdorffer, then recorded for the first time two years later with the New Orleans Owls.
A move to New York City had him playing mostly guitar instead of banjo and he became a member of the Ben Pollack Orchestra and sang on Two Tickets to Georgia. Lamare remained with the band until 1942, performing on records and films, sometimes as a vocalist. He moved to California and spent the rest of his career playing Dixieland as leader of the Louisiana Levee Loungers, then the Straw Hat Strutters in the 1940s and 1950s. The Strutters appeared in the movie Hollywood Rhythm and on the weekly TV variety show Dixie Showboat.
The latter part of his career he spent in reunions with Bob Crosby, performing at Disneyland, and touring with the World’s Greatest Jazz Band. He played guitar, banjo, and sang until his transition at the age of 82 on May 8, 1988.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Don Murray was born on June 7, 1904 in Joliet, Illinois and attended high school in Chicago, Illinois. In his teens he made a name for himself as one of the best young jazz clarinetists and saxophonists in the city. In 1923 he recorded with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and though he was not a regular member of the band, he was a friend who sometimes sat in with them.
Murray made early recordings with Muggsy Spanier before joining the Detroit, Michigan based band of Jean Goldkette, with whom he remained until 1927. It was here that he mentored the young Jimmy Dorsey.
After a brief stint with Adrian Rollini’s band, during which he contributed to several highly regarded recordings by Bix Beiderbecke, he was hired by Ted Lewis. He can be heard in the 1929 Ted Lewis film Is Everybody Happy?
>Suffering injuries sustained in a freak automobile accident where Don was standing on the running board of a moving roadster and fell, striking the back of his head on the pavement. Immediately hospitalized with serious head injury, clarinetist and saxophonist Don Murray transitioned at the age of 24 on June 2, 1929 in Los Angeles, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Rhea “Yank” Lawson was born May 3, 1911 in Trenton, Missouri. He started playing music on saxophones and piano before settling on the trumpet as a teenager. He played in the University of Missouri Dance Band, and was soon offered a job with Slatz Randall’s group, with whom he made his recording debut on Mom in 1932. Dropping out of college he had a stint with Wingy Manone before being hired to join Ben Pollack in late 1933.
From 1933 to 1935 Yank worked in the Pollack orchestra, then became a founding member of the Bob Crosby Orchestra. He later worked with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, but also worked with Crosby again in 1941~1942. Later in the decade he became a studio musician leading his own Dixieland sessions.
By the 1950s he and Bob Haggart created the Lawson-Haggart band and they worked together in 1968 to form the World’s Greatest Jazz Band, a Dixieland group which performed for the next ten years. He recorded for Atlantic, Audiophile, Decca and Jazzology.
Trumpeter Yank Lawson, best known for Dixieland and swing music, transitioned on February 18, 1995 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Boyce Brown was born on April 16, 1910 in Chicago, Illinois. He worked with Wingy Manone, Paul Mares, and Danny Alvin. Best known of his recordings is a 1935 session with Paul Mares and his Friars Society Orchestra, that was first issued on LP in 1955 as part of Columbia’s Chicago Style Jazz album and a 1939 session with Jimmy McPartland & his Jazz Band, which was first released as part of Decca’s Chicago Jazz album. Both of these sessions had Brown demonstrating a driving, harmonically advanced style.
In 1953, Boyce entered a monastery of the Roman Catholic Servite Order, however, he returned in 1956 to release his one and only album as Brother Matthew, backed by a band organized by Eddie Condon.
Alto saxophonist Boyce Brown, who played in the dixieland genre, transitioned from a heart attack on January 30, 1959 at the age of 48.
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